Paul Harkins, who spent four seasons as an assistant coach at
New Mexico State, was named men’s cross country, middle
distance and distance coach at Yale in the fall of 2011.

Harkins helped the New Mexico State women’s cross country
team to the first WAC championship in school history in 2009, just
two years after he took over a team that had finished seventh in
2006. He was also a part of the men’s cross country
team’s highest finish in school history -- second place in
2010. The men were coming off a seventh-place finish when Harkins
arrived in Las Cruces in 2007. Prior to his time at New Mexico
State, he coached at Brown, making Yale his second Ivy League
stop.

Harkins was named the WAC Conference Women’s Coach of the
Year in 2009 at New Mexico State after leading the Aggies to the
league title. That same season, he coached the WAC Women’s
Cross Country Freshman of the Year. In 2009 and 2010, he coached
the WAC Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Year. All told,
Harkins coached five individual WAC champions and 53 all-conference
honorees, including the Aggies’ first male cross country
runner to earn back-to-back all-conference honors since 1971-72.
His runners set nine school records and made 60 additions to the
school’s top 10 list. Harkins’ teams also achieved
success in the classroom, as both the men and the women were
recognized as USTFCCCA All-Academic teams in 2009 and 2010.

Prior to joining the New Mexico State staff, Harkins spent a
season as an assistant at Brown and two seasons as an assistant at
Missouri State. He coached at Nathan Hale High School in Seattle,
Wash., from 2001 to 2004.

In his short time at Yale, Harkins has coached many
middle-distance and distance athletes to great success, and
students like Kevin Dooney, Tim Hillas, Ryan Laemel, John McGowan,
Matt Nussbaum, James Randon, James Shirvell and Matt Thwaites all
emerged as regional stars under his coaching. Over the past couple
years, the middle-distance and distance events have become the
strengths of Yale's track team, while the cross country team has
achieved its usual success.

Harkins coached his first Bulldog to the Division I NCAA Cross
Country National Championships in 2013, helping sophmore Kevin
Dooney overcome some early-season injury issues to place to earn
All-Region and second-team All-Ivy honors and become just the sixth
Yale runner to compete at Nationals since 1991.

Harkins received a B.A. in economics from the University of
Washington, where he ran cross country and track, in 2000. He also
has a Master’s of Science in health promotion and wellness
management from Missouri State.